Beat childhood obesity with PE for two hours a week.

Fine Gael Senator Catherine Noone has joined primary school principals in a call for mandatory PE for Irish schoolchildren.

Sean Cottrell, CEO of the Irish Primary Principals’ Network made the suggestion which is also supported by the Irish Heart Foundation and the Federation of Irish sport.

Said Senator Noone: “we are bottom of the EU league in terms of the time spent on PE in our schools.

“Irish children get just over half the EU average of 109 minutes of physical education.”

The Senator called for  half an hour mandatory daily exercise to bring Ireland to the top of the EU league and cut childhood obesity rates at the same time.

A recent survey of almost 1000 primary principals, she said,  showed that 85% of them identified physical education as the subject that should be allocated more time.

“Talk has gone on for long enough. It is clear that action must be taken. I welcome the comments made by the CEO of the Irish Primary Principals’ Network and hope it leads to some tangible action in the near future.”